Feb. 4, 2014

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (center) and Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly (right) walk at the scene of a boardwalk fire September 12, 2013 in Seaside Heights. Kelly, who penned the now-famous e-mail that said, 'Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,' will invoke her rights under the 5th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and New Jersey law, said her attorney Michael Critchley. / Getty Images

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The attorney for Bridget Anne Kelly, the former deputy chief of staff for Gov. Chris Christie and a central figure in the bridge closing scandal, said she will not produce documents in response to the subpoena from the joint legislative committee investigating the closings.

Kelly, who penned the now-famous e-mail that said, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” will invoke her rights under the 5th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and New Jersey law, said her attorney Michael Critchley.

“A witness is legally required to invoke the privilege against self incrimination to avail oneself of its protections,” Critchley wrote in a letter dated today to Reid Schar, the Chicago-based attorney for the New Jersey Legislative Select Committee on Investigation. “The 5th Amendment’s protections are not limited to verbal testimony.”

She was invoking that right because some of the information requested by the committee “directly overlaps with a parallel grand jury investigation being conducted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.”

For some of the demands, Kelly invoked her rights under the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article 1 of the New Jersey Constitution, her federal and state right to privacy.

She will not produce documents under certain other demands of the subpoena because they are “impermissibly overboard,” Critchley wrote.

In a joint statement, Assemblyman John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, and Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, co-chairs of the New Jersey Legislative Select Committee on Investigation said, “We just received Mr. Critchley's letter. We are reviewing it and considering our legal options with respect to enforcing the subpoena.”